Equivariant Fixed Point Index and the Period-Doubling Cascades

Properties of fixed points of equivariant maps have been studied by several authors including A. Dold (cf. [2], 1982), H. Ulrich (cf. [9], 1988), A. Marzantowicz (cf. [7], 1975) and others. Closely related is the work of R. Rubinsztein (cf. [8], 1976) in which he investigated homotopy classes of equivariant maps between spheres. There have been many attempts to introduce and effectively apply these concepts to nonlinear problems. In particular we mention the work of E. Dancer (cf. [1], 1982) in which some applications to nonlinear problems are given.